Shakespeare's Plays

Everyone has heard of Shakespeare. It is impossible to not have heard of at least one of his works considering the popularity of Romeo and Juliet. However, despite Shakespeare’s fame, most students never actually bother to try and grapple with one of Shakespeare’s works outside of assigned schoolwork. I am not ashamed to admit that I would include myself in that group of students that cared little for Shakespeare until I was forced, in my first year at Regis, to meet face-to-face with one of his plays: Julius Caesar.

My experience with Julius Caesar was wholly disappointing at first considering some of my grammar school English teachers seemed to worship Shakespeare as if he was some sort of deity. I recall being very confused throughout the majority of my first reading of Julius Caesar and I found myself constantly looking back and forth from the notes on the side of the book to the actual text. However, as part of an assignment, I was required to memorize a passage from the play and recite it as best as I could in front of the class. It was with this assignment that I came to the full realization that Shakespeare's works are truly best experienced as plays. While trying to memorize my passage, I found myself picturing the tone of the excerpt and how an actor might interpret their lines to breathe life into the play. After I succeeded in committing my lines to memory, I saw the entirety of the play in a different light and I found myself appreciating the text more when I opened up my mind and stopped thinking of it as a book. Shakespeare truly is meant to be taken in as a play and I cannot wait to compare how I picture the various scenes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing out to how the scenes play out during an actual performance.